OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 is the world’s most advanced desktop operating system. And makes the Mac, iPad and iPhone work even better together.

Mac OS X is both easy to use and incredibly powerful.
So whether you're browsing the web or checking your email, getting things done is at once easy to learn, simple to perform and fun to do

The most striking feature of a Mac is its elegant user interface, made possible by a graphics engine that's built to leverage the advanced graphics processor in every Mac. This engine provides the power for things like high-definition video, stunning graphic effects and high-quality animations. Fonts on the screen look beautiful and extremely readable.

What's New

iCloud

iCloud is how a Mac, iPad, iPhone and iPod touch work together.1 It keeps your mail, calendars, contacts, reminders, documents, notes and more up to date wherever you use them. So when you add, delete or change something on your Mac, it also happens on your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. And vice versa. You don’t have to do anything at all — iCloud is automatic and effortless. Just sign in once with your Apple ID and iCloud is set up in all the apps that use it. Suddenly, life’s easier to juggle.

Messages

Messages with iMessage takes your conversations even further. Because now you can send messages to anyone on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch running iOS 5 too. Messages appear on your Mac and any device you use, which means you can say hi from your Mac and keep chatting on your iPhone or iPad, no matter where you are. Send photos, videos, documents and contacts — even send messages to a group. You’ll see when your message has been delivered and when someone’s typing a reply. Turn on read receipts and they’ll see when you’ve read a message. And with end-to-end encryption, your messages stay safe and private.

Notification Center

Something new is always popping up somewhere on your Mac — an email, a message, a software update, a calendar alert. Notification Center makes it easy to stay on top of it all. Notifications always appear in the same spot on your desktop and disappear quickly so they don’t clutter up your screen. Whenever you want to see all your notifications in one place, just swipe to the left from the right edge of the trackpad. And there they are, in a simple, ordered list. So you’ll always know what’s up as soon as it comes up.

Basic requirements

64-Bit Intel Core 2 Duo processor or better required

Ability to boot into OS X 64-bit kernel

Advanced GPU chipset required

Supported Macs

Mac Mini – early 2009 and newer

MacBook Air – late 2008 and newer

Mac Pro – early 2008 models and newer

iMac – models from mid 2007 and newer

MacBook – 13″ aluminum from 2008, 13″ from 2009 and newer

MacBook Pro – 13" from mid 2009 or newer, 15" from late 2007 and newer, 17" from late 2007 and newer